Cooking directly on oven surface?

[LeahDez]

There have been comments and questions about cooking on mats and parchment paper. Do others cook directly on oven surface?

We cook the pizzas directly on the oven surface (directly on the brick).

[amelia_wise]

Since I can't keep them clean enough, I prefer to use substrate for cooking

[rwiegand]

I think most everyone cooks directly on the bricks, that's kind of the point of a brick oven-- direct heat transfer to the dough fast enough for good loft, not so fast as to burn immediately. The bricks seem just right in terms of heat capacity and conductivity.

I suspect parchment paper would go up in flames as soon as it hit the 800 degree bricks. I've used it on a pizza stone in the inside oven at 500 deg, it burns around the edges, but works OK. Since I've gotten better with a peel I don't do that any more. Any kind of more substantial mat would act as an insulator and defeat the purpose. Metal would transfer heat too quickly.

I first brush the surface with a brass brush, then fan it with my peel to blow away residual ash. Seems to work well. Others have made a blow tube out of copper pipe to blow off the surface, either with a bellows or breath power.

[shanxk8]

Another +1for cooking directly on the brick surface. I use my metal peel (it is square-ish -rounded corners) to clear out any coals & ash that I can, then use the copper tube blow method to clear the rest of the ash (the peel never clears it all). The copper tube might be one of the best suggestions so far for the WFO (starting fire & fanning flame early on, clearing ash, etc.).
Another note, i find that 800°F is about the maximum floor temperature that i'm able to cook pizza without severely burning the bottom, anything hotter seem to burn bottom a little (or lot) too much for our tastes.

Regarding parchment paper, I have cooked a loaf of bread on that in the oven, with a floor temperature around 430°F. For a 40 minute bake the parchment had browned but did not burn. (That was a result of proofing the loaf overnight on the parchment & not having adequately floured. The loaf was not going to release, so put the parchment & dough on the pizza paddle & loaded into the oven. (It was only my second bread bake in the oven, but the best so far)
David